American Girls Frozen's Anna

As you may have noticed my donation doll projects have had a decided fairy tale theme to them lately. During a recent Crochetville Wishlist a very kind FGM sent me a pattern for Frozen's Anna to make. I was thrilled as I'd listed the pattern hoping to be able to make Anna and Elsa. My DH had picked up Elsa for me as part of a set of Tara Cousin patterns. You can purchase Elsa here. Anna's pattern is available for purchase here.

The designer suggests using a J hook for the outfit. I found the J was required for the cape, but not the dress. I used a g for the dress to make gauge and the J to make the cape fit.

This is the first time I successfully attempted foundation stitches and I am quite excited. In the past I've tried sc and I couldn't make it work. This time however, the foundation stitches required were for dc and I found a picture tutorial that finally showed me where the stitches were inserted that made sense to me. I find that with most things finding I'm missing just one piece that makes the process clear. Once I have that the rest I've read falls into place with a click. After working the foundation stitches for this piece I was able to work more complicated sc stitches for another piece. Sometimes it just takes getting the first one finished.

The gown requires no buttons which is always a plus with me. The only button required is for the cape closure. I could find no directions for adding the red stripes shown in the pattern picture. I chained red yarn and weaved it through to look like the picture.

Another thing I had to tackle were crochet pleats. This was a nightmare and thankfully I found another online tutorial that gave me a crocheted method and a post crocheted fold method. The crocheted method was never clear to me and I never did complete pleats for the dress. Knowing what I learned as I was making the cloak, I think I could complete that for next year.

However, as I was working on the cloak I realized as I reached the required number of stitches without performing the pleated stitches I was able to get the cloak to "self-pleat" through folding it. I could have sewed a few stitches to hold it, but it was doing well enough alone, I decided not to risk losing the flow of the cape by sewing the ends down.